The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume I. The Songs of Scotland of the past half century

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Title: The Modern Scottish Minstrel , Volume I.

The Songs of Scotland of the past half century

Author: Various

Editor: Charles Rogers

Release Date: May 15, 2006 [EBook #18396]

Language: English

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SIR WALTER SCOTT BART.

Lithographed for the Modern Scottish Minstrel, by Schenck & McFarlane.

THE

MODERN SCOTTISH MINSTREL;

OR,

THE SONGS OF SCOTLAND OF THE PAST HALF CENTURY.

WITH

Memoirs of the Poets,

AND

SKETCHES AND SPECIMENS

IN ENGLISH VERSE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED

MODERN GAELIC BARDS.

BY

CHARLES ROGERS, LL.D.

F.S.A. SCOT.

IN SIX VOLUMES;

VOL. I.

EDINBURGH:

ADAM & CHARLES BLACK, NORTH BRIDGE,

BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS TO HER MAJESTY.

M.DCCC.LV.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY,

PAUL'S WORK.

TO

WILLIAM STIRLING, ESQ. OF KEIR, M.P.,

AN ENLIGHTENED SENATOR, AN ACCOMPLISHED SCHOLAR, AND AN INGENIOUS POET,

THIS FIRST VOLUME

OF

The Modern Scottish Minstrel

IS,

WITH HIS KIND PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,

BY

HIS VERY OBEDIENT, FAITHFUL SERVANT,

CHARLES ROGERS.

PREFACE.

Scotland has probably produced a more patriotic and more extended minstrelsy than any other country in the world. Those Caledonian harp-strains, styled by Sir Walter Scott gems of our own mountains, have frequently been gathered into caskets of national song, but have never been stored in any complete cabinet; while no attempt has been made, at least on an ample scale, to adapt, by means of suitable metrical translations, the minstrelsy of the Gaël for Lowland melody. The present work has been undertaken with the view of supplying these deficiencies, and with the further design of extending the fame of those cultivators of Scottish song—hitherto partially obscured by untoward circumstances, or on account of their own diffidence—and of affording a stimulus towards the future cultivation of national poetry.

The plan of the work is distinct from that of every previous collection of Scottish song—the more esteemed lyrical compositions of the various bards being printed along with the memoirs of the respective authors, while the names of the poets have been arranged in chronological order. Those have been considered as modern whose lives extend into the past half-century; and the whole of these have consequently been included in the work. Several Highland bards who died a short period before the commencement of the century have, however, been introduced. Of all the Scottish poets, whether lyrical or otherwise, who survived the period indicated, biographical sketches will be supplied in the course of the publication, together with memoirs of the principal modern collectors, composers and vocalists. The memoirs, so far as is practicable, will be prepared from original materials, of which the Editor, after a very extensive correspondence, has obtained a supply more ample and more interesting than, he flatters himself, has ever been attained by any collector of northern minstrelsy. The work will extend to six volumes, each of the subsequent volumes being accompanied by a dissertation on a distinct department of Scottish poetry and song. Each volume will be illustrated with two elegant engravings. In the course of the work, many original compositions will be presented, recovered from the MSS. of the deceased poets, or contributed by distinguished living bards.

For the department of the Modern Gaelic Minstrelsy, the Editor has obtained the assistance of a learned friend, intimately familiar with the language and poetry of the Highlands. To this esteemed co-adjutor the reader is indebted for the revisal of the Gaelic department of this work, as well as for the following prefatory observations on the subject:—

"Among the intelligent natives of the Highlands, it is well known that the Gaelic language contains a quantity of poetry, which, how difficult soever to transfuse into other tongues and idioms, never fails to touch the heart, and excite enthusiastic feelings. The plan of 'The Modern Scottish Minstrel' restricts us to a period less favourable to the inspirations of the Celtic muse than remoter times. If it is asked, What could be gained by recurring to a more distant period? or what this unlettered people have really to shew for their bardic pretensions? we answer, that there is extant a large and genuine collection of Highland minstrelsy, ranging over a long exciting period, from the days of Harlaw to the expedition of Charles Edward. The 'Prosnachadh Catha,' or battle-song, that led on the raid of Donald the Islander on the Garioch, is still sung; the 'Woes of the Children of the Mist' are yet rehearsed in the ears of their children in the most plaintive measures. Innerlochy and Killiecrankie have their appropriate melodies; Glencoe has its dirge; both the exiled Jameses have their pæan and their lament; Charles Edward his welcome and his wail;—all in strains so varied, and with imagery so copious, that their repetition is continually called for, and their interest untiring.

"All that we have to offer belongs to recent times; but we cannot aver that the merit of the verses is inferior. The interest of the subjects is certainly immeasurably less; but, perhaps, not less propitious to the lilts and the luinneags, in which, as in her music and imitative dancing, the Highland border has found her best Lowland acceptation.

"We are not aware that we need except any piece, out of the more ancient class, that seems not to admit of being rivalled by some of the compositions of Duncan Ban (Macintyre), Rob Donn, and a few others that come into our own series, if we exclude the pathetic 'Old Bard's Wish,' 'The Song of the Owl,' and, perhaps, Ian Lom's 'Innerlochy.'

But, while this may be so far satisfactory to our readers, we are under the necessity of claiming their charitable forbearance for the strangers of the mountain whom we are to introduce to their acquaintance. The language, and, in some respects, the imagery and versification, are as foreign to the usages of the Anglo-Saxon as so many samples of Orientalism. The transfusion of the Greek and Latin choral metres is a light effort to the difficulty of imitating the rhythm, or representing the peculiar vein of these song-enamoured mountaineers. Those who know how a favourite ode of Horace, or a lay of Catullus, is made to look, except in mere paraphrase, must not talk of the poorness or triteness of the Highlander's verses, till they are enabled to do them justice by a knowledge of the language. We disdain any attempt to make those bards sing in the mere English taste, even if we could so translate them as to make them speak or sing better than they do. The fear of his sarcasms prevented Dr Johnson from hearing one literal version during his whole sojourn in the Highlands. Sir Walter Scott wished that somebody might have the manliness to recover Highland poetry from the mystification of paraphrase or imposture, and to present it genuine to the English reader. In that spirit we promise to execute our task; and we shall rejoice if even a very moderate degree of success should attend our endeavours to obtain for the sister muse some share of that popularity to which we believe her entitled.

In respect of the present volume of The Modern Scottish Minstrel, the Editor has to congratulate himself on his being enabled to present, for the first time in a popular form, the more esteemed lays of Carolina, Baroness Nairn, author of The Laird o' Cockpen, The Land o' the Leal, and a greater number of popular lyrics than any other Caledonian bard, Burns alone excepted. Several pieces of this accomplished lady, not previously published, have been introduced, through the kindness of her surviving friends. The memoir of the Baroness has been prepared from original documents entrusted to the Editor. For permission to engrave The Auld House o' Gask, Lady Nairn's birth-place, the Editor's thanks are due to Mr Paterson, music-seller in Edinburgh.

While the present volume of The Modern Scottish Minstrel is offered to the public with becoming diffidence, the Editor is not without a faint ray of hope that, if health and sufficient leisure are afforded him, the present publication may be found the most ample and satisfactory repository of national song which has at any period been offered to the public.

Argyle House, Stirling,

April 18, 1855.

CONTENTS.

JOHN SKINNER,1

Tullochgorum,11

John o' Badenyon,13

The ewie wi' the crookit horn,17

O! why should old age so much wound us?20

Still in the wrong,22

Lizzy Liberty,24

The stipendless parson,28

The man of Ross,31

A song on the times,33

WILLIAM CAMERON,35

As o'er the Highland hills I hied,37

MRS JOHN HUNTER,39

The Indian death-song,41

My mother bids me bind my hair,41

The flowers of the forest,42

The season comes when first we met,43

Oh, tuneful voice! I still deplore,44

Dear to my heart as life's warm stream,44

The lot of thousands,45

ALEXANDER, DUKE OF GORDON,46

Cauld kail in Aberdeen,48

MRS GRANT OF CARRON,50

Roy's wife of Aldivalloch,52

ROBERT COUPER, M.D.,53

Kinrara,55

The sheeling,55

The ewe-bughts, Marion,56

LADY ANNE BARNARD,58

Auld Robin Gray,64

Part II.,65

Why tarries my love?68

JOHN TAIT,70

The banks of the Dee,72

HECTOR MACNEILL,73

Mary of Castlecary,82

My boy, Tammy,83

Oh, tell me how for to woo,85

Lassie wi' the gowden hair,87

Come under my plaidie,89

I lo'ed ne'er a laddie but ane,90

Donald and Flora,92

My luve's in Germany,95

Dinna think, bonnie lassie,96

MRS GRANT OF LAGGAN,99

Oh, where, tell me where?104

Oh, my love, leave me not,106

JOHN MAYNE,107

Logan braes,110

Helen of Kirkconnel,111

The winter sat lang,113

My Johnnie,114

The troops were embarked,115

JOHN HAMILTON,117

The rantin' Highlandman,118

Up in the mornin' early,119

Go to Berwick, Johnnie,121

Miss Forbes' farewell to Banff,121

Tell me, Jessie, tell me why?122

The hawthorn,123

Oh, blaw, ye westlin' winds!124

JOANNA BAILLIE,126

The maid of Llanwellyn,132

Good night, good night!133

Though richer swains thy love pursue,134

Poverty parts good companie,134

Fy, let us a' to the wedding,136

Hooly and fairly,139

The weary pund o' tow,141

The wee pickle tow,142

The gowan glitters on the sward,143

Saw ye Johnnie comin'?145

It fell on a morning,146

Woo'd, and married, and a',148

WILLIAM DUDGEON,151

Up among yon cliffy rocks,152

WILLIAM REID,153

The lea rig,154

John Anderson, my jo (a continuation),155

Fair, modest flower,157

Kate o' Gowrie,157

Upon the banks o' flowing Clyde,159

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL,161

Now winter's wind sweeps,165

The hawk whoops on high,166

MRS DUGALD STEWART,167

The tears I shed must ever fall,168

Returning spring, with gladsome ray,169

ALEXANDER WILSON,172

Connel and Flora,179

Matilda,179

Auchtertool,182

CAROLINA, BARONESS NAIRN,184

The ploughman,194

Caller herrin',195

The land o' the leal,196

The Laird o' Cockpen,198

Her home she is leaving,200

The bonniest lass in a' the warld,201

My ain kind dearie, O!202

He 's lifeless amang the rude billows,202

Joy of my earliest days,203

Oh, weel's me on my ain man,204

Kind Robin lo'es me205

Kitty Reid's house,205

The robin's nest,206

Saw ye nae my Peggy?208

Gude nicht, and joy be wi' ye a'!209

Cauld kail in Aberdeen,210

He 's ower the hills that I lo'e weel,211

The lass o' Gowrie,213

There grows a bonnie brier bush,215

John Tod,216

Will ye no come back again?218

Jamie the laird,219

Songs of my native land,220

Castell Gloom,221

Bonnie Gascon Ha',223

The auld house,224

The hundred pipers,226

The women are a' gane wud,227

Jeanie Deans,228

The heiress,230

The mitherless lammie,231

The attainted Scottish nobles,232

True love is watered aye wi' tears,233

Ah, little did my mother think,234

Would you be young again?235

Rest is not here,236

Here's to them that are gane,237

Farewell, O farewell!238

The dead who have died in the Lord,239

JAMES NICOL,240

Blaw saftly, ye breezes,242

By yon hoarse murmurin' stream,242

Haluckit Meg,244

My dear little lassie,246

JAMES MONTGOMERY,247

Friendship, love, and truth,253

The Swiss cowherd's song in a foreign land,254

German war-song,254

Via Crucis, via Lucis,255

Verses to a robin-redbreast,257

Slavery that was,258

ANDREW SCOTT,260

Rural content, or the muirland farmer,263

Symon and Janet,265

Coquet water,268

The young maid's wish for peace,269

The fiddler's widow,271

Lament for the death of an Irish chief,272

The departure of summer,273

SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.,275

It was an English ladye bright,289

Lochinvar,290

Where shall the lover rest,292

Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,294

Hail to the chief who in triumph advances,295

The heath this night must be my bed,297

The imprisoned huntsman,298

He is gone on the mountain,299

A weary lot is thine, fair maid,300

Allen-a-Dale,300

The cypress wreath,302

The cavalier,303

Hunting song,304

Oh, say not, my love, with that mortified air,315

METRICAL TRANSLATIONS FROM THE MODERN GAELIC MINSTRELSY.

ROBERT MACKAY (ROB DONN),309

The song of winter,311

Dirge for Ian Macechan,315

The song of the forsaken drover,315

Isabel Mackay—the maid alone,318

Evan's Elegy,321

DOUGAL BUCHANAN,322

A clagionn—the skull,326

Am bruadar—the dream,330

DUNCAN MACINTYRE,334

Mairi bhān ōg (Mary, the young, the fair-haired),335

Bendourain, the Otter Mount,336

The bard to his musket,347

JOHN MACODRUM,351

Oran na h-aois (the song of age),352

NORMAN MACLEOD (TORMAID BAN),355

Caberfae,357

GLOSSARY,363

THE

MODERN SCOTTISH MINSTREL

JOHN SKINNER.

Among those modern Scottish poets whose lives, by extending to a considerably distant period, render them connecting links between the old and recent minstrelsy of Caledonia, the first place is due to the Rev. John Skinner. This ingenious and learned person was born on the 3d of October 1721, at Balfour, in the parish of Birse, and county of Aberdeen. His father, who bore the same Christian name, was parochial schoolmaster; but two years after his son's birth, he was presented to the more lucrative situation of schoolmaster of Echt, a parish about twelve miles distant from Aberdeen. He discharged the duties of this latter appointment during the long incumbency of fifty years. He was twice married. By his first union with Mrs Jean Gillanders, the relict of Donald Farquharson of Balfour, was born an only child, the subject of this memoir. The mother dying when the child was only two years old, the charge of his early training depended solely on his father, who for several years remained a widower. The paternal duties were adequately performed: the son, while a mere youth, was initiated in classical learning, and in his thirteenth year he became a successful competitor for a bursary or exhibition in Marischal College, Aberdeen. At the University, during the usual philosophical course of four years, he pursued his studies with diligence and success; and he afterwards became an usher in the parish schools of Kemnay and Monymusk.

From early youth, young Skinner had courted the Muse of his country, and composed verses in the Scottish dialect. When a mere stripling, he could repeat, which he did with enthusiasm, the long poem by James I. of Christ-kirk on the Green; he afterwards translated it into Latin verse; and an imitation of the same poem, entitled The Monymusk Christmas Ba'ing, descriptive of the diversions attendant on the annual Christmas gatherings for playing the game of foot-ball at Monymusk, which he composed in his sixteenth year, attracting the notice of the lady of Sir Archibald Grant, Bart. of Monymusk, brought him the favour of that influential family. Though the humble usher of a parish school, he was honoured with the patronage of the worthy baronet and his lady, became an inmate of their mansion, and had the uncontrolled use of its library. The residence of the poet in Monymusk House indirectly conduced towards his forming those ecclesiastical sentiments which exercised such an important influence on his subsequent career. The Episcopal clergyman of the district was frequently a guest at the table of Sir Archibald; and by the arguments and persuasive conversation of this person, Mr Skinner was induced to enlist his sympathies in the cause of the Episcopal or non-juring clergy of Scotland. They bore the latter appellation from their refusal, during the existence of the exiled family of Stewart, to take the oath of allegiance to the House of Hanover. In 1740, on the invitation of Mr Robert Forbes, Episcopal minister at Leith, afterwards a bishop, Mr Skinner, in the capacity of private tutor to the only son of Mr Sinclair of Scolloway, proceeded to Zetland, where he acquired the intimate friendship of the Rev. Mr Hunter, the only non-juring clergyman in that remote district. There he remained only one year, owing to the death of the elder Mr Sinclair, and the removal of his pupil to pursue his studies in a less retired locality. He lamented the father's death in Latin, as well as in English verse. He left Scolloway with the best wishes of the family; and as a substantial proof of the goodwill of his friend Mr Hunter, he received in marriage the hand of his eldest daughter.

Returning to Aberdeenshire, he was ordained a presbyter of the Episcopal Church, by Bishop Dunbar of Peterhead; and in November 1742, on the unanimous invitation of the people, he was appointed to the pastoral charge of the congregation at Longside. Uninfluenced by the soarings of ambition, he seems to have fixed here, at the outset, a permanent habitation: he rented a cottage at Linshart in the vicinity, which, though consisting only of a single apartment, besides the kitchen, sufficed for the expenditure of his limited emoluments. In every respect he realised Goldsmith's description of the village pastor:—

"A man he was to all the country dear,

And passing rich with forty pounds a-year;

Remote from towns he ran his godly race,

Nor e'er had changed, nor wish'd to change his place."

Secluded, however, as were Mr Skinner's habits, and though he never had interfered in the political movements of the period, he did not escape his share in those ruthless severities which were visited upon the non-juring clergy subsequent to the last Rebellion. His chapel was destroyed by the soldiers of the barbarous Duke of Cumberland; and, on the plea of his having transgressed the law by preaching to more than four persons without subscribing the oath of allegiance, he was, during six months, detained a prisoner in the jail of Aberdeen.

Entering on the sacred duties of the pastoral office, Mr Skinner appears to have checked the indulgence of his rhyming propensities. His subsequent poetical productions, which include the whole of his popular songs, were written to please his friends, or gratify the members of his family, and without the most distant view to publication. In 1787, he writes to Burns, on the subject of Scottish song:—While I was young, I dabbled a good deal in these things; but on getting the black gown, I gave it pretty much over, till my daughters grew up, who, being all tolerably good singers, plagued me for words to some of their favourite tunes, and so extorted those effusions which have made a public appearance, beyond my expectations, and contrary to my intentions; at the same time, I hope there is nothing to be found in them uncharacteristic or unbecoming the cloth, which I would always wish to see respected. Some of Mr Skinner's best songs were composed at a sitting, while they seldom underwent any revision after being committed to paper. To the following incident, his most popular song, Tullochgorum, owed its origin. In the course of a visit he was making to a friend in Ellon (not Cullen, as has been stated on the authority of Burns), a dispute arose among the guests on the subject of Whig and Tory politics, which, becoming somewhat too exciting for the comfort of the lady of the house, in order to bring it promptly to a close, she requested Mr Skinner to suggest appropriate words for the favourite air, The Reel of Tullochgorum. Mr Skinner readily complied, and, before leaving the house, produced what Burns, in a letter to the author, characterised as the best Scotch song ever Scotland saw. The name of the lady who made the request to the poet was Mrs Montgomery, and hence the allusion in the first stanza of the ballad:—

"Come gie 's a sang, Montgomery cried,

And lay your disputes all aside;

What signifies 't for folks to chide

For what was done before them?

Let Whig and Tory all agree," &c.

Though claiming no distinction as a writer of verses, Mr Skinner did not conceal his ambition to excel in another department of literature. In 1746, in his twenty-fifth year, he published a pamphlet, in defence of the non-juring character of his Church, entitled A Preservative against Presbytery. A performance of greater effort, published in 1757, excited some attention, and the unqualified commendation of the learned Bishop Sherlock. In this production, entitled A Dissertation on Jacob's Prophecy, which was intended as a supplement to a treatise on the same subject by Dr Sherlock, the author has established, by a critical examination of the original language, that the words in Jacob's prophecy (Gen. xlix. 10), rendered sceptre and lawgiver in the authorised version, ought to be translated tribeship and typifier, a difference of interpretation which obviates some difficulties respecting the exact fulfilment of this remarkable prediction. In a pamphlet printed in 1767, Mr Skinner again vindicated the claims and authority of his Church; and on this occasion, against the alleged misrepresentations of Mr Norman Sievewright, English clergyman at Brechin, who had published a work unfavourable to the cause of Scottish Episcopacy. His most important work, An Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, from the first appearance of Christianity in that kingdom, was published in the year 1788, in two octavo volumes. This publication, which is arranged in the form of letters to a friend, and dedicated, in elegant Latin verse, Ad Filium et Episcopum, (to his son, and bishop), by partaking too rigidly of a sectarian character, did not attain any measure of success. Mr Skinner's other prose works were published after his death, together with a Memoir of the author, under the editorial care of his son, Bishop Skinner of Aberdeen. These consist of theological essays, in the form of Letters addressed to Candidates for Holy Orders, A Dissertation on the Sheckinah, or Divine Presence with the Church or People of God, and An Essay towards a literal or true radical exposition of the Song of Songs, the whole being included in two octavo volumes, which appeared in 1809. A third volume was added, containing a collection of the author's compositions in Latin verse, and his fugitive songs and ballads in the Scottish dialect—the latter portion of this volume being at the same time published in a more compendious form, with the title, Amusements of Leisure Hours; or, Poetical Pieces, chiefly in the Scottish dialect.

Though living in constant retirement at Linshart, the reputation of the Longside pastor, both as a poet and a man of classical taste, became widely extended, and persons distinguished in the world of letters sought his correspondence and friendship. With Dr Gleig, afterwards titular Bishop of Brechin, Dr Doig of Stirling, and John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, he maintained an epistolary intercourse for several years. Dr Gleig, who edited the Encyclopædia Britannica, consulted Mr Skinner respecting various important articles contributed to that valuable publication. His correspondence with Doig and Ramsay was chiefly on their favourite topic of philology. These two learned friends visited Mr Skinner in the summer of 1795, and entertained him for a week at Peterhead. This brief period of intellectual intercourse was regarded by the poet as the most entirely pleasurable of his existence; and the impression of it on the vivid imagination of Mr Ramsay is recorded in a Latin eulogy on his northern correspondent, which he subsequently transmitted to him. A poetical epistle addressed by Mr Skinner to Robert Burns,